West Suffolk College to open esports lab as it helps students find careers in the industry – interview with esports course director Benjamin Lewis

Esports News UK recently teamed up with West Suffolk College to host series of esports industry talks for students, with guests including speakers from Guild, G2, Hitmarker, NUEL and more.

In order to find out more about the college’s plans in esports, we interviewed course director Benjamin Lewis.

The Esports BTEC Level 3 course launched in September 2020, and West Suffolk College were among the first to get involved.

“We were one of the first UK colleges to offer the Esports BTEC course, we jumped in and pushed the boundaries,” Ben says.

“It’s been interesting, there’s been some education of other staff and management, so I have my elevator pitch and we talk about what esports is and the skillset that comes with it. That skillset is huge, it can take students almost anywhere.”

West Suffolk College is in the process of moving and opening an esports lab for September 2022, and possibly introducing a Level 2 course in the future.

“The lab will be really benefical, it will help us produce more content, stream regularly and have a presence online,” Ben added.

“The lab will have about 24 gaming machines in there, it’s big enough to have six other machines and sound-proof booths to work on shoutcasting and more. I’ve got massive plans for what I want to do! It’s about getting funding in, other ideas, speakers and more.”

And those industry speakers have opened up new connections for the college.

“The chat we had recently with Guild Esports’ [senior operations manager, Ryan Barnett] and talking about the Guild Academy, there are students who want to become professional gamers,” Ben explained.

“We are part of British Esports and we use their Student Champs as an outlet for things like streaming, casting, coaching, team management… but Guild were saying they actively scout players from training sessions, so there’s an outlet there for students in terms of a path to pro.

“For the digital world we’re in now, these skillsets I mentioned earlier are things that are needed.”

Ben also spoke about taking input from students to help the college produce their own esports degree in the future.

“We want our students to look at the specialisms they’re interested in, rather than [for us to make] a general course,” Ben said.

Read more about West Suffolk College’s digital technologies course on their website here

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.